Andalucia Everest Expedition
remains at Advanced Base Camp at 6,400m of altitude, surrounded by more than
300 tents of other expeditions. With their Sherpas Pemba, Mingmar and
Thsering and Carlos Garranzo, they acclimatized for a couple of days at that
altitude before attempting the assaults of the different high altitude camps.
At the intermediate camp (5,800m) and due to the persistent impossibility of
communication, journalist Javier Blázquez and cameraman Daniel Bueno decided
to start their return trip.

It took them a day and a half
to go back to Katmandu, a little calmer after the incidents of the last few
days. After a trip by car to the China-Nepal border and their later flight by
helicopter to the capital of Nepal, after many long hours waiting and the
religious payment in Yuans and rupees in important amounts, Blazquez and Bueno
still hope to get plane tickets for their return in the next two days.

At ABC the conditions are not
good, but the quantity of expeditions, among them a few Spanish, will let us
make alliances. This season there is numerous group from Castilla La Mancha
attempting to assault Everest, and the Basque group of Josu Feijoo, Jose Diego
Esteban, the civil guard, who is going solo and a Catalan group that has just
arrived.

Translated
from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

HUISA AND LOPEZ
REACH ADVANCED BASE CAMP

Blázquez and
Bueno go back to Spain because of the bad conditions

Advanced Base
Camp, April 26, 2006

Early this
morning, due to the bad conditions, and that all the devices fail - satellite,
portables, etc. - and because they are not getting along with the
acclimatization, the four of us decided that Daniel Bueno and Javier Blázquez
should go down to Base Camp, to start their return to Spain from there. Pedro
and I left towards Advanced Base Camp, at 6,450m. The climb was striking and
beautiful, through and endless route of several kilometers, with glacier
stretches on both sides and with slopes and vertical ice formations that
reached up to seven or eight meters.

So, the ascent
has been spectacular, but very hard. We got there very badly and the mountain
sickness is hitting us. It is the first time we sleep so high, so the
mountain sickness is very evident.

Javier and Dani
told us that, once in Base Camp, they hired a car and they went to the town of
Tingri, where they wait for news to go back to Katmandu.

Advanced Base
Camp is located on the slopes of Everest. From here the entire ascent route
is seen. It is spectacular and threatening at the same time. 3,000 tents can
be seen on the mountain with groups of climbers that try to ascend. Pedro and
I will be here three days acclimatizing. When we fell Ok, we will proceed to
the assault of Camp 1 to stock it up.

After a morning
organizing the shipment on the yaks with almost 800 kilos of material and
assuming the bribe of 400 extra dollars we had to give to the liaison officer,
we started climbing to intermediate camp around 13:00.

The journey
has been long, making a difference of altitude of 600 meters and more than 15
kilometers. Some film shots have been made for the documentary. As the hours
passed, Dani was getting weaker and weaker; finally, after seven hours of a
long ascent, we got to intermediate camp at 5,800m.

The cameraman
and Javier Blázquez arrived in bad conditions, so we are planning their
return. Especially because the communication failures, technically
unavoidable and because they have not been able to do their job, along with
the weakness at this altitude, tomorrow we will decide if they go back or
not.

Huisa noted the
professional level shown by both of them "because despite not being mountain
climbers and not being used to spend nights at 20 degrees Celsius below zero,
they have been dodging the inconveniences very professionally. Pedro and I
are now in good physical condition and we hope that tomorrow's journey could
be done without incidents".